HENDERSON COUNTY. 189 



slide down the hillside, to accumulate and form a bench at a level lower than 

 where they originated. These ore deposits when in place are covered with a 

 thin deposit of ferruginous sandstone, and the blocks found covering the 

 second and lower benches, besides being tilted and sloping downward, are 

 frequently completely overturned, showing the ferruginous sandstone beneath 

 the ore. 



The iron ores found throughout the different ore fields of the county are all 

 of the laminated variety of Dr. Penrose's classification, and belong to that 

 division of the laminated ores known as buff crumbly ore. These ores have 

 all a uniform appearance and thickness, and are overlaid throughout the 

 whole of the region by a soft brown ferruginous sandstone. This sandstone 

 thickens towards the northeast, and is found in greater quantities in the ore 

 fields around Battle Creek than in the region around Fincastle and Boon 

 Mountain, in the southern field. 



The analyses of these ores show them to carry phosphorus in greater or 

 less quantities, extending from a mere trace to 0.44 per cent, and sulphur ex- 

 ists only in exceedingly small quantities, all of the analyses made showing 

 only traces of this material. 



The local details of the most prominent portions of the southern fields give 

 a thickness of ore about three feet. 



At Round Mountain, on the Allen K. Jones head right, the hill has an ele- 

 vation of one hundred and forty feet above the level of the creek, and is 

 covered on the summit by large blocks of ferruginous sandstone and buff 

 crumbly iron ore. Some of these blocks measure six feet in length by four 

 feet in width, and are from two to four feet in thickness. The ferruginous 

 sandstone found here in association with the ore does not exceed two or three 

 inches in thichness. A narrow, deep, steep-sided ravine divides Round 

 Mountain from Boon Mountain. Boon Mountain has the same structure as 

 Round Mountain, and belongs to the same range of hills. Close to J. M. 

 Gauntt's house, on the Luke Gauntt headright, another hill rises to an eleva- 

 tion of one hundred and fifty feet above the bottom lands. This hill is a 

 long, narrow, flat-topped ridge, running in a northeasterly and southwesterly 

 direction. The bench around the hill at an elevation of one hundred and forty 

 feet is covered with broken fragments of buff crumbly ore and ferruginous 

 sandstone, and the side of the hill is covered with a broken debris of the 

 same character of material. The ore on this hill does not exceed three feet, 

 and the associated sandstone two or three inches. The highest portion of 

 this ridge is covered by a deposit of grayish colored sand about ten feet in 

 thickness. A well twenty-two feet deep at Mr. Gauntt's house, close to the 

 base of this hill, passed through a red and black clay into lignite. 



Another isolated oval shaped hill, known locally as Pine Hill or Cooper 



